What follows is part 2 of Pastor Wrinkle’s latest sermon.

Dick Cheney was once questioned about his physical health by a  white house reporter. His answer to the question was “ Except for the occasional heart attack I never felt better.”

Isn’t that true for all of us? Life is full of occasional heart attacks. No one is exempt. No one gets out of life pain-free. No one: Not the President; Not the Queen of England; Not the storekeeper in his shop; Not the doctor in his operating room; Not even the Pastor in his pulpit. Everyone is subject to the occasional heart attack.  I’m not talking about the physical condition caused by heart disease although that is one form of heart attack. I am talking about those things in life which cause us to wish we had died: It can be the death of a loved one; A long-term illness; A divorce; Or a child hooked on drugs. We all have our own personal heart attacks. Some of them catch us by surprise and knock the wind right out of us and others are of our own making. So it was with our Scriptural passage yesterday. Peter  made a tragic error in choosing sides and it sent his life into a tail spin.

Now I know we would all like to get out of life scott free. We all want heart attack free lives, but we have to face reality; That isn’t going to  happen. This world is a heart attack zone, bad things happen here ever since  Adam and Eve blew our chances at Eden by eating the apple. Bad things are going to continue to happen until Jesus comes back and sets things right. Yet somehow still we think we can try in our own power to fix things.

You may have heard recently that a meteor hit Siberia. This meteor it is said struck the ground going forty thousand miles per hour  and injured over 1,000 people as it struck the earth and blew out windows in a city of 1,000,000.

The response of the world is to ask “How can we stop this from happening again?”

I have a simple answer. “We can’t.” Meteors fall and you can’t tell them to stop. Heart attacks happen and you can’t hold them back. It’s part of living in an imperfect world.

Further you can’t stop a heart attack from hurting. By definition they are things that strike at the heart of who you are. You don’t just wave them off like yesterday’s bad chicken. They are more than mere annoyances. They are painful things that you have to work through.

So you can’t stop them and you can’t stop them from hurting

But what you can do is learn to be happy in the heart attack.

“How does that work Pastor J?” You ask.

“We are supposed to be happy about falling meteors, divorces,  loved ones dying and real life heart attacks?”

No we aren’t supposed to be happy about tragedy but we can be joyful in tragedy.

James 1:2 says “² Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”

When life’s heart attacks come they can be opportunities for great joy if we will just follow God’s path.

More tomorrow….

⁶ “I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”

⁷ I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
⁸ Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You will break them with a rod of iron^[b];
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” Psalm 2:6-9

As we look at this next portion of Psalm chapter 2  we come to an interesting description of the rule of Christ upon the Earth. Psalm 2 tells us that when Jesus reigns from the throne in Jerusalem he will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Rev. 2:27, 12;5 and 19:5 reiterate this truth.

What does it mean that Jesus will rule the nations with a rod of iron? Why do you think this will be necessary?

NIV Psalm 2

¹ Why do the nations conspire^[a]
and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth rise up
and the rulers band together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
³ “Let us break their chains
and throw off their shackles.”

⁴ The One enthroned in heaven laughs;
the Lord scoffs at them.
⁵ He rebukes them in his anger
and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,
⁶ “I have installed my king
on Zion, my holy mountain.”

⁷ I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son;
today I have become your father.
⁸ Ask me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
⁹ You will break them with a rod of iron^[b];
you will dash them to pieces like pottery.”

¹⁰ Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
¹² Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

We asked yesterday about the interpretation of verse 1. Ultimately it is fulfilled in the prophetic outcome of Revelation 19:15-20:9

¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth (Jesus’) is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”^[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

¹⁷ And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, ¹⁸ so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

¹⁹ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. ²⁰ But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹ The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

20 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. ² He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. ³ He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

⁴ I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They^[b] had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. ⁵ (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

⁷ When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison ⁸ and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. ⁹ They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

I know there is a temptation today among Christians to compromise and embrace the ways of the world, but in light of these verses how should we live?